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About the Author

Tom Sileo is co-author of 8 SECONDS OF COURAGE (Simon & Schuster, 2017), FIRE IN MY EYES (Da Capo, 2016) and BROTHERS FOREVER (Da Capo, 2014). He is a contributing senior editor of The Stream and recipient of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's General O.P. Smith Award for distinguished reporting. Previously, Tom worked at CNN as a copy editor. Follow him on Twitter @TSileo.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Our Brothers

File image courtesy: Senior Airman Neil Warner

Spc. Alex Rozanski was serving as a United States Marine in 2003 when his older brother, Nick, decided to follow in his footsteps and join the military.

"It was one of those things growing up; I knew I wanted to be a soldier or Marine," Spc. Rozanski, 32, told The Unknown Soldiers. "I thought it was just something that men did, and in a way, I think Nick was the same way."

The Rozanski brothers were a long way from playing with G.I. Joes when in 2005, military planes carrying Alex and Nick virtually passed one another in mid-flight.

"He was coming home from Kosovo while I was leaving for Iraq," Alex said.

When the Marine returned from his combat deployment, his big brother was waiting to salute him.

"Nick was the first one to greet me and the first one to give me a hug," Alex fondly recalled.

After serving honorably in Iraq, Alex decided to leave the Marine Corps and return to central Ohio, where generations of Rozanskis, including his father and grandfathers, have served our country in uniform. Nick, as a soldier in the Ohio National Guard, deployed to Iraq two years after Alex had fought there.

"He was more or less doing convoy escort, which means he saw the entire nation of Iraq," Alex said. "That was supposed to be the hazardous deployment, as he was dodging IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on the roadways."

In 2008, Capt. Nick Rozanski came home from Iraq to his loving wife, Jennifer. As the couple raised two daughters, the Ohio State University graduate immersed himself in family and work life, while resolving that if his country called again, he would be ready.

Alex, meanwhile, was hearing the call himself. Like his older brother, he joined the Ohio National Guard.

"I still had that draw to the military," he explained. "You don't remember the bad times, you remember the good times...the camaraderie."

Not long after the two brothers once again became brothers in arms, Nick was presented with the difficult proposition of being thousands of miles from his family while serving overseas for the third time.

"My brother didn't necessarily have to go to Afghanistan, he chose to because he felt an obligation," the younger Rozanski warrior said. "If not you, it's somebody else's husband, son, or father."

Even as an active duty soldier, Alex never thought his brother, who left for Afghanistan in January, could possibly return home in a wheelchair or flag-draped casket.